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Meditation Teacher Training Blog with Susan Taylor, PhD

Nourish Your Body, Balance Your Mind As I reflect upon the health crisis now facing us, I keep pondering on the concept that there are ancient healing practices that help people to maintain the health and happiness of the mind-body and spirit, if only they were understood and practiced we would ultimately discover the secret to health and happiness. I believe that each and every one of us has the innate wisdom to feel good, and I know from experience that the pathway to health and well being is not out of our reach. We need three components to sustain ourselves

8 Strategies to Boost Your Mood Depression is one of those things that we can do certainly pass on. We have all experienced the feelings of sadness, hopelessness, fatigue and lethargy one time or another in our life. The big Pharma companies have picked up on the issue but without cure. It is estimated that more than 20 million Americans, roughly 7%, experience depression. However, I believe that the numbers are much higher if dysthymia is included in this statistic. With one in ten using antidepressants there seems to be no cure with conventional approaches, just management. Depression is nothing

Diet and Nutrition for a Balanced Mood Recent evidence suggests that good nutrition is essential for not only our physical but emotional health. Research shows that a number of mental health conditions may be influenced by dietary factors. The body of evidence linking diet and mental health is growing at a rapid pace. One of the most obvious, yet under-recognized factors in the development of major trends in mental health is the role of foundation nutrients. As well as its impact on short and long-term mental health, the evidence indicates that food nutrients play an important contributing role in the

What does your diet and nutrition have to do with disease prevention? We are all driven by early detection practices to find cancer and other disease states. The search for finding out what is wrong so that one can begin treatment earlier rather than later seems to be the trend. This is intertwined with the concept of saving one’s life. Can you imagine for a moment if the same energy and effort was put into educating people on the lifestyle opportunities that one must take to prevent a disease state. In addition, educating the public on the overuse of

Focus, remaining calm and having a good memory seem to be what most people need to feel good. I have heard people time and time again fearful as to whether they will perhaps be one of the 10 million people who develop Alzheimer’s disease later on in life. Although no one supplement can guarantee total brain health, I have listed some supplements that I have personally found useful in working with clients and my own diet. This list is by no means all inclusive, just some that I have had success with working on the path to feel good. Magnesium:

Finding Your True Self Today more than ever we need to be able to separate the truth from the non-truth. With find ourselves going to google to get the information on all our questions from health to spirituality. The internet is a powerful instrument but does not know right from wrong or truth from untruth. Therefore, we must develop our own surveillance to see what is true and what is not so true. Easier said than done. In this blog post I’ll talk about your own best teacher, your- Self and how to find her. For thousands of years

Making Sense of Five Emotions In Traditional Chinese Medicine as well as Ayurvedic Medicine, unrestrained emotions are considered to be just as responsible for illness as are external pathogens. It is now commonly recognized in the West as well as in the East that emotions and stress can cause physical diseases. Each emotion is linked to nature’s five elements as well as to our organs. Having the awareness of this process will help us avoid getting ill during times when we are stuck in emotional turmoil. In order to recognize the emotions that bind our heart, we can use our

Are you considering becoming a meditation teacher? With the world moving in the direction of mindfulness and meditation we are in need of highly qualified meditation teachers. It seems apparent that programs being introduced should have specific requirements and standards, with solid meditation practice retreats; but this is not always the case. In this blog post we’ll cover five steps or areas to consider when choosing training for meditation teachers. Step 1: Credentials Does the program have an advisory board? Advisory boards are beneficial since they keep standards and certification criteria in check. Many certification programs are merely survey courses. This

Whether you are looking for personal growth and development of your meditation practice, or if your desire is to give back by teaching others, teaching meditation will help you get to that next level. There’s a great need right now more than ever, for people to go deep into meditation and we need well trained teachers to bring the practice of meditation to the people that need it. To address this need, I created the meditation teacher training program over a decade ago, and during that time I’ve trained many teachers to help spread the wave of meditation in order

Healing means to bring yourself back into balance to make whole. The use of the word, “heal” has been documented before the 12th century, so it is not a new concept. As a foundational concept we will look at healing as being necessary when we are out of balance and must return to wholeness. Healing ultimately starts in the mind although many would think it starts in the body. When our mind becomes disturbed, distracted or depressed we need to harness its energy and return it to calm and clarity. This at times can be very difficult and then weRead more →

Did you know that stress is a habit? Have you ever arrived at work with no detail of how you got there? When you started from home on autopilot, you thought about if you have your keys, wallet and cell phone, but somewhere along the way, your brain moved onto more interesting topics, and the next thing you knew, you'd arrived. This is the essence of habits - once you start on a familiar series of actions, you stop thinking about them, and you are able to complete them without conscious thought or attention. This can be both a boonRead more →

Mindfulness in Focus Arriving home after traveling for a few days, our Giant Schnauzer, Radha and Irish Wolfhound, Plato come to meet me as if they have not seen me in months. They proceed to follow me around and when I sit down, again I am greeted with delight and a level of exuberance that pays little regard to the fact that we had met just moments earlier. In a way, Radha and Plato have mastered being present with focused awareness. Their minds are devoted to my presence at that precise moment in time. The nature of our minds asRead more →

Medical Disclaimer

The contents of this website are for informational purposes only and are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.